A Review of 2016

My successes and failures from 2016.

Planned and Successful

1. Goal: Change career and become a Front End Web Developer.
2. Goal: Work on developing and popularizing SoFoBoMoPartial Success: Michael is now a part of the SoFoBoMo initiative. We ran SoFoBoMo 2016. But I had planned a lot more which I didn’t get to.
3. Goal: Improve handwriting.Partial Success: I have tweaked my handwriting so that LiveScribe can transcribe my notes correctly 99% of the time.

Unplanned Achievements

1. Started recording “Moral Letters Vol II” by Seneca for Librivox.
2. Climbed outside at The Emeralds, Mt. St. Helena and Alabama Hills
3. Built a website for a friend, first using Polymer, then using plain old Bootstrap.
4. Family trips to Vancouver and Costa Rica.
5. Getting to learn Java on the job.
6. Better sleep. Thanks to sleep tracking via Fitbit, Yogi Caramel Bedtime Tea and earplugs.
7. Finding my productivity/essentialism strategy (for now): 2 week Idea / 6 month project by Tim Ferriss in this podcast.
8. Working on Project LittleReads.

Planned but failed

1. Goal: Develop and market a web app targeted towards readers who like to take notes. Project Name: ScribblerReason for failure: This project was too big, too complex. The project plan did not work. Also more interesting projects waylaid me.
2. Goal: Make a new wallpaper every month and submit to Smashing Magazine.Reason for failure: I underestimated the time needed to do this every month, and overestimated my enthusiasm for this.
3. Goal: Train to climb betterReason for failure: Many. Failure in commitment and discipline, weight gain are the major ones. I did climb a lot more this year and got marginally better, but am definitely stuck in my plateau.
4. Goal: Investment Reading PlanReason for failure: here
5. Goal: 4 Family Camping trips.Reason for failure: These were scheduled, campsites booked, but got cancelled at the last minute.